this has been an intense focus of the administration. the president had 13 face to face meetings with president obama we have built out an extensive set of mechanisms with channels of communication to work on this relationship and i think it has resulted in a positive and constructive relationship. there will be issues but we put in place a superstructure for the way to manage these issues going forward. i spent an enormous amount of time with the chinese leadership and i think we can have put in place the mechanisms to have a productive and constructive relationship and i look forward to working with the new leadership in beijing. host: related to what he was saying, i want to go back to your piece on foreign affairs -- as the u.s. tries to rebalance its strategic priorities and asia -- explain what that means. guest: it is rebalancing strategic focus on resources. it is a way -- is pointing them away from the middle east. it is clear that u.s. interest in asia is enormous. it is a huge growth area both economically and, obviously, we h